CDC officials say Trump admin has been pressuring them to approve detaining migrant kids at hotels

Apparently not satisfied enough with strong-arming the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into supporting Stephen Miller’s order that uses the novel coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to shut down asylum at the southern border, the Trump administration has also been trying to force the CDC into endorse its unlawful policy detaining asylum-seeking children in hotels, The Washington Post reports.

While a federal judge last month ordered a stop to the administration’s despicable practice of detaining kids at hotels while it seeks to quickly expel them from the country, officials tell The Post that the administration has been pressuring career officials at the CDC to sign an order supporting the practice in an attempt to justify it to the court. So far, officials have declined. But it doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way—just look at the recent history.

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The Associated Press reported just this month that the CDC had also initially refused to give in to Miller’s demand to use the pandemic as an excuse to block asylum-seekers at the border, saying there was no valid public health reason to do so. But Miller wasn’t about to let facts and figures get in the way, and had Mike Pence to verbally bully CDC Director Robert Redfield.

Redfield ultimately gave in, siding with partisanship and racism to expel thousands of asylum-seeking children—thousands—back to whatever horrors they were fleeing from in the first place. “Many have been returned to dangerous and violent conditions in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala,” the AP reported.

But this administration isn’t quite done with the cruelty just yet, believing that in order to be able to quickly expel these kids, it needs to detain them in hotels instead of licensed facilities contracted with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). And like with the pandemic order, it’s once again demanding the partisan support of the CDC, “according to one HHS official who has seen the declaration” and has spoken to The Post, the report said.

“CDC career scientists should not be pressured to sign a legal declaration justifying the administration’s treatment of unaccompanied minors,” that official told the Post. “Our federal scientists are understandably refusing to sign a document lending support to the administration’s immigration policies and practices.”

But the widespread use of hotels was happening because that first order was signed by Redfield under pressure from Pence and Miller. So much damage has already happened because of that first order. It should have never been signed—and neither should this one.

“The request from HHS is the latest example of the administration’s efforts to use government scientists and physicians to advance the president’s political agenda,” The Post continued. “Under pressure from the White House, the CDC has repeatedly delayed and watered down guidelines on how Americans might protect themselves from the coronavirus, including the safest ways to reopen churches and schools.” This politicized CDC isn’t helping keep anyone safe. It’s only working to keep the president’s reelection chances safe.

Source: Daily Kos